An American Watching UK Elections for the First Time? Here's What Shocked Me

The PM always calls the general election, it’s just normally that is within a year of the hard term limit for a parliament. At the 5 year point the sitting government is automatically ends and parliament dissolves.

Great vid. It's nice to see a lot of travelling/migrating Americans sharing their experiences abroad. It's an education for both sides. :)

I like it that in the UK there are no campaign ads on the day of the election, by law, nor reporting by TV channels until after the voting has closed, typically at 10pm.

I think it's £54000 per constituency, which means no party can go over 35 million if they are contesting every seat (which only the Conservatives do). It's not common a party reaches the limit anyways cause people don't donate that much to political parties. It's great for local parties though.

I live in Canada, which basically has the UK election system, but is close to the USA so we hear too much about your American elections. Back in 2015, Prime Minister Harper called an election well in advance (11 week campaign period was the longest in history) hoping it would help him and instead he lost badly. Most of our elections are 6 or even just more than 4 weeks. We also have weekday voting but there are multiple days of advance voting and voting by mail (special ballot process). There are campaign spending limits, strict contribution limits, and donations over $200 are publicly released (so you cannot be anonymous).

I thought the minimum notice for a General Election was three weeks (not six weeks).

Six weeks is more than enough. Most of us are aware of the various parties stance and intent and we are already pretty secure in our opinions and voting intentions. The politicians are mainly campaigning to get you to actually go and vote.

Have a look at the Australian electoral system. It is a refined version of the British system 😊

Nice hearing an American talking about their republic and it's voting system and having no idea about how or why the republic was set up that way

15:19 ithink one of the best things about the UK system is we vote for a party not a person. It means, at least in theory, it should be about policies not charisma.

The reason the US has an electoral college for presidential elections is to ensure that the more rural states with lower populations still have a voice. Otherwise the coastal cities where the population is concentrated would dominate process and shut them out

Pretty much the same in Australia We also hand over to the incoming government as soon as the result is know. Stops a lot of problems. We also have compulsory, preferential voting which is more democratic and reduces extrtemism.

However, time-restricted and coordinated elections are kind of the norm outside of the US. Canada for example, follows the UK model (sort of) and we have tight regulations on how elections are run that are enforced by independently run government agencies like Elections Canada at the federal level and an equivalent entity for each province. You can't campaign outside of an election cycle (although the head of our "Republican" party - the Conservatives - tends to break this rule a lot). Elections at the federal level are every four years unless the current government fails a vote of non-confidence in which case we go to election immediately and the entire gov is reelected. Elections here typically last 6-8 weeks tops. A difference between Canada and the US and UK (which actually DO work the same way on this) is that the federal parties are not usually the same as the provincial parties - even if they have the same name - and at the municipal level, the parties are typically local to the city. Americans really do confuse voting with democracy. There are lots of non-democratic nations like Russia and China that hold votes, but with limited choices. An example of how weird (to me) the US system is, is that *primaries* are run like a step in the voting process. Your news reports on competitions for seats at the primary level and act like it's a win for a party when someone is selected - but that's not even an election. Outside the US, parties can pick their candidates any way they want to and it's at the actual election when we decide if we want them in office. Similarly, typically only members of the party in question get to participate in choosing the party's candidates because those people represent the party at the election. It used to be like this in the US - but the two main parties have slowly rewritten the rules at the federal and state level to essentially make the US a two party system with just *their* two parties. Which is another difference between the US and... well pretty much the rest of the world outside of totalitarian nations like Russia and China: we tend to have many parties. Canada has five major ones: The Liberals, The Conservatives, the NDP, The Bloc Quebecois and The Greens. The UK has Labour, The Conservatives, The Liberal Democrats (LibDems), The Greens, The Scottish National Party, (SNP) Reform and a few others smaller parties. The US has two and a half: The Democrats, The Republicans and "Other" (ie: Independents - which is bizarre because that lumps people in Libertarian and Communist parties together) who are usually just lumped in with the minority party of the two main ones. The advantage of the UK and Canadian systems is that we get more choices AND we can focus on the election for a short time rather than having to hear it 24/7 every day of the year. It helps weed out propaganda and forces politicians to actually talk about issues.

$15 billion dollars. People are living on the streets in tents, living in their cars long term because they can't afford housing but your government will happily waste billions of dollars talking crap and that's okay. There is so much that is wrong with America. I'll just add this to the long list.

Another difference, the prime minister is sworn in immediately, not months later. You loose a election and are out that day.

There is one slight exception to the rule that you don't directly vote for the Prime Minister. As the PM is a member of Parliament they have a constituency just like all the others, and have to stand for reelection to that seat in a General Election. It's entirely possible for the incumbent government to win reelection but the PM to lose their seat. So if you happen to live in the PM's constituency, their fate is directly in your hands regardless of how the vote in the rest of the country goes. This became an issue in the 2005 election. Reg Keys was the father of a serviceman killed in Iraq. He stood for election against the then PM Tony Blair in Blair's constituency of Sedgefield. He didn't win but the BBC produced a biographical drama about him called "Reg" with Tim Roth as the lead. I once spoke to the police officer who was in charge of the PM's protection unit at that time. He said he was seriously worried about the announcement of the result. Under the rules, the candidates stand together by the returning officer who announces the result. And no one else, including police protection officers, are allowed there. So he was thinking "The PM's going to be standing unprotected next to the guy who publicly blames him for his son's death, at the moment that guy finds out his plan to get payback has failed. If he decides to seek payback by more direct means and attacks the PM, we won't be able to respond immediately". As it happened, Reg gave a passionate speech about how he hoped one day the PM would find it in his heart to apologise. Blair just stood there impassively.

UK politicians or would be politicians are constantly commenting on the political situation and saying what they would do, if they were in power, or are doing, if in power. From a certain point of view you can call that campaigning, but its not shoved in your face and its up to the individual to go look for it. In the run up to a confirmed election you start to see more active touting of what a particular individual and party represent and what they will focus on.

6 weeks is more than enough!

Campaigning is allowed on polling day, so you might see campaign material on social media or receive a leaflet through your door on polling day itself. But campaign material is not allowed within the perimeters of a polling station. This means there shouldn’t be any campaign posters, banners or other advertising literature present at the polling station Broadcasters on TV and radio must not discuss or analyse election issues once polling stations have opened, up until 10pm when voting finishes. It is against the law for anyone, including broadcasters, to publish the results of any opinion poll on polling day until polling stations close. We don't have adds on TV but we have party political boardcasts these are clearly advertised as such by the broadcaster with an announcement that says "This is a party political boardcast by the (party name). At the end of the boardcast they say "This was a party political boardcast paid for by the (party name).

In Scotland and Wales it was the elections for our National Parliaments. In Scotland, we have our Local Council elections in 2027.